A Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat nearly got into the 9-second range this past weekend and while that is impressive, what makes this Mopar muscle car newsworthy is the fact that it got so close to the 9s without any major changes to the vehicle – just wheels and tires, a stronger driveshaft, a tune of the engine and transmission and the oh-so-important driver mod.

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Over the past two years, we have talked about Metro Detroit area Hellcat Challenger owner and racer Simon Haddad. In the past, he has turned some stunning quarter mile times with relatively few upgrades made to his supercharged Dodge – venturing into the low 10-second range without changing any of the factory engine components.

With spring finally hitting Michigan, Haddad and his Challenger have been hitting the track, still running almost all of the factory components. This year, he has switched from a racing gasoline tune to an E85 tune, and this past weekend, he ran a 10.09 at 140.27 miles per hour with a tune, wheels/tires, a stronger driveshaft and loads of experience launching this 4,600-pound muscle car.

The Details on the Car
There has been loads of speculation about this Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat after the timeslip hit social media, so I reached out to Haddad for the details on his supercharged muscle car.

First, the car has the full interior, the factory brakes and all of the other weight-adding components that came on the Hellcat Challenger when it rolled off of the assembly line. The only items that reduce weight are the aftermarket wheels, leading to a track weight of more than 4,600 pounds when the car ran 10.09.

In addition to the wheels, this Challenger has sticky rear tires, allowing Haddad to rip away from the starting line. On his 10.09 run, he pulled s 1.488 60-foot time. For those who aren’t sure, that is crazy-quick for a street car that weighs well over two tons. Launching that hard puts a ton of stress on the driveshaft, so he has also added a stronger driveshaft, but that is more of a durability upgrade than a performance modification.

Finally, the magic that has put this Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat into the 10.0s comes from Injected Engineering, the shop that helped get the most power out of the supercharged Hemi with an E85 alcohol blend engine tune. While E85 allows tuners to build lots more power, the engine has to consume far more E85 than it does gasoline, so swapping to the alcohol blend requires higher volume fuel injectors and a higher volume fuel pump. Those are the only actual changes made to this Hellcat Challenger engine – every other component is stock.

In addition to the engine tune and the E85 conversion, Injected Engineering provided a transmission tune that helps optimize the shift points of the 8-speed automatic transmission.

So in summary, this car has aftermarket wheels, sticky rear tires, a stronger driveshaft, larger fuel injectors, a higher capacity fuel pump and engine/transmission tune from Injected Engineering – and it runs 10.0s.

The Quest for 9s
This past weekend, Simon Haddad and his Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat headed to Mid Michigan Motorplex. While there, he ran what I believe to be the quickest quarter mile time by any Hellcat car without more significant upgrades, such as pulley swaps, nitrous oxide, weight reduction, etc. Some people will argue that the car isn’t stock weight because of the aftermarket wheels and others will insist that the engine isn’t stock because it has large injectors, but internet bickering and technicalities aside – this is an incredible run for a car that is so lightly modified.

Haddad hasn’t changed any of the commonly-upgraded engine parts, yet he is on the verge of breaking into the 9-second range with tires, an elaborate tune and an E85 swap – showing the potential of the mighty Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat.